TODAY’S SPORTSTAT: NFL’s young guns strut their stuff

While we are in the midst of the NFL playoffs, here is a trio of interesting stats that you may not know …

1,000-yard rushers

Up until the 2018
regular season, 31 of the 32 NFL teams had at least one runner who had amassed
1,000 or more yards rushing in a season this decade (2010-17). The only team
without a 1,000-yard rusher this decade was the Carolina Panthers.

Cincinnati and Denver
have had the most different players reach 1,000 yards rushing in a season from
2010-18 with four each. Here is a look at how many different 1,000-yard rushers
each team has had since 2010 (a player who has had multiple 1,000-yard seasons
this decade is counted only once; this is the number of individual players).

Four different 1,000-yard
rushers: Cincinnati, Denver

Three different 1,000-yard
rushers: Dallas, Miami, New England, Tennessee

Does it seem to you that
the elite receivers in the NFL are becoming younger and younger? Well, there
are some numbers to back that up.

There were 74 players
who had 50 or more receptions during the 2018 regular season. Of those, 41
(55%) were age 25-29. Twenty-one of the 74 (28%) were age 20-24; and 12 of the
74 (16%) were age 30 and older.

Of the 74, 33 (almost
half… 45%) were between the ages of 24-26. Fifteen of the 74 players with 50 or
more receptions in 2018 were age 25, the most of any age group.

If we bump the stat to
players who caught 80 or more passes in 2018, 15 of the 21 players (71%) who
caught 80 or more passes were age 25-29; five (24%) were age 20-24, and only
one was over the age of 30.

Finally, if we just look
at the 11 players who caught 100 or more passes in 2018, there were eight (73%)
who were age 25-29, two age 20-24 and only one that was in his thirties.

Rodgers also becomes the
first QB in NFL history to have 25 or more TD passes, less than five
interceptions and 40 or more sacks in a season.

If we adjust the numbers a bit and look at how many QBs were sacked 40 or more times and had fewer than 10 interceptions in a season, that has happened 38 times in league history by 27 different QBs: six of them have reached these two numbers in a season multiple times. The six who reached these numbers multiple times: Aaron Rodgers (four seasons), Russell Wilson (four seasons), Alex Smith (three seasons), Ken O’Brien, Neil O’Donnell and Tyrod Taylor (two seasons each).

Six QBs in 2018 were
sacked 40 or more times and had fewer than 10 interceptions: Rodgers, Wilson,
Deshaun Watson, Matt Ryan, Dak Prescott and Marcus Mariota.